Jesus: One Hundred Years Before Christ

Arguing that Jesus had lived and died much earlier than reported in the Gospels, the author offers a compelling argument for re-examining the "historical Jesus" and putting him at an earlier era in Palestinian history.

It is perhaps inevitable that with a question as many-faceted as the origins of Christianity, no one book will cover all the bases. But Ellegard's is a joy to read, and he does an excellent job of bringing together a wide range of evidence, some of it familiar, some very novel. Though he presents his work as a hypothesis deserving further study rather than as fact, the scenario he offers constitutes a very plausible middle ground between the purely mythical/spiritual Jesus of Earl Doherty and the conventional view that follows from taking the four gospels as (containing) historical fact.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone willing to approach the "Christian origins" question with genuine openness rather than just looking for excuses to dismiss unconventional ideas as a potential threat to their faith. After all, if Ellegard is right, then Paul and his first-century colleagues found it perfectly possible to live out a full-blooded faith despite knowing nothing of any "Jesus of Nazareth" as described in the gospels -- so why shouldn't twenty-first century Christians do the same?